CHAPTER 15 "Goodbye"

Lily listened to her breath and thought how easy it was to breathe. Inhale and exhale, the air was warm. She could also feel her heartbeat, it was strong and anxious, pumping blood through her veins. This made her think about her mother, how many heartbeats had she left? A single tear fell through her pink cheeks as she looked out the window of the moving train. She was heading home and this made her scared. Was this the last time she would see her? Lily swallowed and felt her throat burn. It would have been nice if someone had accompanied her, the loneliness was heavy. If only Tuny was a better sister, she might have had a letter with her words and her kindness. But it wasn't like that, the last time they had spoken was when she had blamed her for her mother's condition. She grabbed her sleeve and dried her tears, she had to be strong.

It wasn't raining, it would have been fitting if it were raining, Lily thought. It was a bright cold sunny Friday afternoon. It was already spring, but there was a little snow left from winter. Lily adjusted her coat as she suddenly felt a little cold.

The ride felt longer than it usually did. She had no one to talk to or distract her from her thoughts, so she dedicated her time to reading novels. She wasn't in the mood for school reading.

"Need anything?" asked the trolly witch.

"Sure! Jelly slugs, please," Lily said, excited. She hadn't expected the lady to go by, since she was the only one traveling.

Lily finally arrived home with just a couple of jelly slugs left in her pocket. Lily stood for a minute looking at the white door of her yellow house. She didn't get a nice feeling, she knew what was waiting for her on the inside.

"Happy Birthday Lily," a weak greeting met Lily as she entered her mother's room. It was different than the last time she'd been there. Instead of her queen size bed, there was a single hospital bed, tubes poking out of everywhere.

"Mom," Lily ran and hugged her mother. She was thin, her hair was weak and dull, her eyes were sunken and her skin was yellowish. The smell... the smell of medicine and antiseptic, Lily felt like she was going to be sick.

"Don't... cry... hunny," her mother said in between breaths when they pulled apart. Lily hadn't noticed but her tears had started to fall.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to," she said dabbing her already damp sleeve on her cheeks. Her mother only smiled, she was so weak talking was an effort.

"We got you a gift," her father said as he walked up. He seemed serious, sad, but composed. Mrs. Evans pointed to the side of her bed. Lily looked and found a brown basket with a green ribbon. She picked it up and opened it. Her heart exploded with love and endearment.

As he usually did he looked around. She wasn't there, James knew this, but he still looked every time he entered a new room.

"Who are you looking for?" Peter asked innocently.

"No one," James said faster than he meant to. They had entered the common room and found their favorite spot in one of the corners. There was a high-arm sofa and two single sofas that matched. The marauders fit comfortably and were happy with the privacy they were allowed at that spot. The boys sat down and Sirius took out a bag of sweets.

"So, the map is finished," Peter announced with pride.

"Awesome," James said, "How's the spell going, Rem?"

"Found a couple of spells that could work, what I'm working on now is a variant of the Human-presence-revealing Spell"

"I can help with that," James said.

"We haven't done anything fun in a while," Sirius said with chocolate in his teeth.

"I was just thinking about that. What do you guys think about investigating tonight?"

"Count me in," smiled Sirius.

"I'll skip this time," Remus said. "I'm not feeling too well."

"Is it your illness?" Peter asked.

"Of course it's his problem-he-won't-speak-about," James said and looked at Remus. "Need anything?"

"No, I'll manage,"

"Fine, it will be us three then," Sirius said and placed his bag of sweets down. "Where do we start?"

"Hope," her father said.

"No, not hope,"

"How about Luna?"

"Most of them are called Luna," Lily said as she petted her new kitten. She was beautiful, she had long white hair and had heterochromia: she had one blue eye and the other was green.

"Nita. I think I'll call her Nita,"

"Beautiful name," her mother said. Nita moved and laid herself down next to Mrs. Evans and started to purr, both fell asleep.

"She likes her," Lily thought out loud.

"She has been keeping her company since we got her a couple of days ago," her father said.

"Where is Tuny?"

"She went out. She comes and goes lately. I think she leaves to get some air." Mr. Evans fixed his wife's sheets and blankets. " Let go, Lilikins. Let's leave her to rest."

That night was a silent night, the only sound that could be heard was the silent steps of the three boys hidden under the great invisibility cloak and sometimes there was a snore from one of the portraits on the wall. No one was out, it was close to midnight and it was plenty cold. The three Marauders were happy to be out and about again, they headed towards the entrance hall. They decided to start where they had last seen the Slytherins sneaking around.

"Where do you think they were heading?" Peter asked.

"Out, obviously," Sirius said. "They'd get together somewhere outside the school. I'm sure of it."

"Let's see what we can find," James said and they walked out the front door that they had previously magically tricked into not locking.

The boys stepped outside and stopped as they felt a cold breeze hit them. The cloak fluttered in the wind and if there had been someone there to see, they would have been able to see six pairs of shoes with no bodies.

"Damn it's cold," Sirus said.

"Where do we go now?" Peter asked. The three looked around, to their left was the lake, a little further down was the quidditch pitch. To their right was a small tree that occasionally moved, a little ahead was Hagrid's cabin, behind all this was the forbidden forest. It was dark, mysterious, and noisy.

"The Forest," James and Sirius said at the same time.

"Th.. the forest?" stuttered Peter. They hadn't been back there since their first visit, it had been scary enough to not encourage them to go back.

"Yes, that is where they're meeting, it has to be," James said.

"There's no other option, it's the only place where you can do magic without anyone noticing," Sirius said.

"Especially Dumbledore," James acknowledged.

"But, last time.." Peter said with panic in his voice.

"Last time we were a bunch of newbies not up to the challenge," Sirius said.

"We know much more magic now," James winked.

"But last time we were chased out by something that we didn't even know what it was."

"Well, we'll find out tonight!" James said.

Peter swallowed and said, "You first then."

The three first years walked up to the forest. Once on the edge, they took the cloak off and James hid it into one of his pockets. They all had was their wands, wich they held tightly in their hands.

"Ready?" James asked.

"I was born ready," Sirius smiled at James, Peter remained silent. And the three boys walked in.

Lily looked out the window of her room and she could see her home's backyard. It was dark outside but she could still see the swing her mother used to push her in and the small patch of dirt they had once planted a vegetable garden in. It was midnight and Nita was asleep in her lap, she was really sweet and followed her wherever she went. It was hard to sleep, her head wouldn't stop thinking about everything. Her mother was at the end, she knew this and it was hard to accept. Her father was thin, he hasn't been eating well and all he did is take care of her. He cleaned her, fed her, and attended to every need. Petunia was a basket case, she was short-tempered and didn't speak or even looked at Lily. She even kicked Nita at one point. Lily understood Petunia. She was there all year long while Lily was at school, escaping from the reality of everything, she was far from all the sad energy in the house. She could feel it now, though, every little good feeling being sucked away. Nita was the only small joy she had.

Lily picked Nita up and walked to her mother's room. She was asleep, her breathing was short and she would sometimes complain. Lily fixed her pillow, just to feel like she did something. Her father slept in a small cot on the other side of the room, he was asleep too. She grabbed a small pillow from the couch and laid down next to her mother's legs, Nita placed herself next to her belly and Lily finally fell asleep.

"This is it!" Sirius yelled. "Come over here."

James and Peter hurried to catch up. They had not encountered any living thing yet. James saw what Sirius had found. There was a round space with no vegetation and had many big logs cut up into stools.

"This definitely is it," James said, "It's practically an outdoor classroom."

"Look," Peter said and pointed towards the other side. There was a tree that had magically been shaped into what seemed like a teacher's desk.

"This is definitely it," Sirius said as he looked around the desktop-formed tree. The three of them looked around and found nothing. There was no indication of who could have been there. There were signs of people having been there but no paper or word carved in the wood that indicated who it could possibly be.

"This sucks," Sirius said and kicked a log.

"We found the place, it's something. It could be really useful," James said.

"G... guys."

"What is it, Peter?" an annoyed Sirius asked.

"Ca..ca..can you hear that?" he muttered.

"Wha…?" James turned quiet mid-word as he finally heard some steps.

"Are those hooves?" Sirius asked as the three boys huddled in the middle.

"Who's there," a deep voice came out of the darkness. The marauders froze.

"Foals, from the school," an even deeper voice came from the other side.

"You shouldn't be here," the first voice said.

"You… Do you know who comes here? Who made this?" James courageously decided to take advantage of these English-speaking creatures.

"Beta Aquarii is out today," the second voice said and walked out of the shadows to look up into the clear starry sky.

James, Peter, and Sirius took a deep breath in shock. James whispered in awe, "Centaurs!"

"You shouldn't be here," the first voice repeated.

"Yes, well that was the idea," Sirius said.

"Dark times are on the way, you should be careful."

"If we are getting in the way of bad people, that is exactly where we want to be," James said proudly.

"The bravery of the fool."

"If I'm a fool trying to live in a better world. Then I'm the biggest fool there is." James retorted.

"Go back to the castle, there are potential dangers tonight three foals wouldn't survive," and with that, the centaurs left them alone leaving behind the ground marked by hooves.

"That was so freaking awesome!" Sirius yelled and threw a fist in the air.

"Totally awesome!" James chimed in.

Peter swallowed and looked pale, "I think we should go back, you know as Mr. Centaur said."

"Remus will be so jealous!" Sirius said, making his way back out of the forest.

Saturday wasn't the best day, but it could have been much worse. Mother was barely awake during the day and when she was she couldn't talk much. Once she was in too much pain the medicine would make her sleep. Lily's family spent the whole day together, Tuny was back and helped with the cooking. Lily talked with her mother, she told her about her friends, the wonders of the castle, her classes, flying and most of all about magic. Her mother loved to hear about the magic. It pained Lily to see her father, he was suffering in silence but put on a brave face.

"Brought some soup," Petunia entered the room with a tray.

"Yum," was all Mrs. Evans could say. She hadn't been eating solids for a while now.

The four of them sat there talking while Lily fed her mother. Mrs. Evans would occasionally participate in the conversation with one or two words.

"Rachel, the neighbor is pregnant," Petunia said to Lily conversationally.

"Really? My goodness, Mrs. Fernsby must be devastated," Lily said.

"The Proud Fernsby House has a stain," laughed her father.

"Poor girl," Mrs. Evans said.

"Yes," Petunia said. "Imagine having a mother like that."

"Our mother is the best," smiled Lily and her mother smiled back.

So that was the last time Mrs. Evans was awake, she shortly fell asleep and passed away peacefully that same night.

Well ! That was hard.

Hope you enjoyed :)

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Saludos 3